Minister Stéphane Dion Launches the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations (CIPI)

Sainte-Foy, May 27, 1999 - The Honourable Stéphane Dion, President of the Privy Council and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, launched today the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations (CIPI), the latest of Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCEs).

In announcing that the federal government is granting the new Institute $13 million over the next three years, the Minister stated that "This federal investment will allow the CIPI to carry out research in the important field of photonics, thus contributing to the excellent reputation enjoyed by Canada in this field since the Second World War. Furthermore, the Institute will work in close cooperation with the private sector to train the young researchers who will meet the demand of companies for highly qualified people," added Mr. Dion.

Canada is in the midst of a transition from a resource-based economy to one in which technology plays a major role. Photonics plays a large part in that emerging technology and feeds a flourishing industry centred around such fields as high volume optics telecommunications, environmental monitoring, biomedical science and even space exploration.

The term photonics comes from the word photon, or particle of light, and is a kind of distant cousin of electronics, which treats and uses electrons. More precisely, photonics is associated with generating, transmitting and detecting light. Historically, this new science comes out of the vast field of modern optics that emerged at the beginning of the 1960's after the invention of the laser. Thus photonics is a broad field encompassing various aspects of optics such as lasers, fibre optics, image and information processing, and ultrashort and ultraintense optical pulses, to name a few. It is a field that is revolutionizing every day life and its impact can be compared to the invention of the automobile or the discovery of electricity.

The Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations was created following a national competition last year and its funding was made possible through a three-year, $30-million increase to the NCE program's annual budget announced in the 1999 federal budget. In all, 25 of the 64 researchers who will be involved come from the province of Quebec.

The ceremony, which was held at l'Université Laval, was attended by many partners from the 22 universities, 34 companies and 14 research centres across Canada that joined forces to create the Institute. L'Université Laval was chosen as the site for this event because it will host the administrative centre of the CIPI.

Said Dr. François Tavenas, rector of l'Université Laval: "L'Université Laval is proud of its leadership in bringing together the talents of photonics researchers from British Columbia to Nova Scotia in this Institute. Photonics will be at the heart of the information technology revolution in the 21st century." Dr. Tavenas went on to say that l'Université Laval also hosts the administrative centre of the Geomatics for Informed Decisions NCE, launched last fall.

Professor Michel Têtu, from the departments of electrical engineering and computer engineering of l'Université Laval, one of the CIPI's two scientific leaders, said that this Institute presents "a splendid opportunity for Canadian researchers to collaborate and perform world-class research together." The other scientific leader of the Institute, Professor William van Wijngaarden from York University, added that "the research program is very ambitious but our researchers are enthused by the idea of leading truly innovative projects."

Canada now has a total of 15 Networks of Centres of Excellence in different areas contributing to Canada's scientific vitality and socio-economic development, and to the improvement of our health: arthritis, bacterial and genetic diseases, protein engineering, health information, telecommunications, computer-aided learning, mathematics, geomatics, photonics, robotics, microelectronic devices, innovative structures for civil engineering, forestry and environment, and mechanical wood-pulps.

For more information visit the CIPI Web site.